Resource Access for the 21st Century: Toward A Modern Access Architecture

Sunday, February 11

10:30 AM - 11:30 AM

Location: Sheraton Denver Downtown, Silver

The library electronic subscription/access environment remains primarily based on IP-address authentication despite its numerous problems and limitations. Sponsored by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and the STM Association, Resource Access for the 21st Century (RA21) is an initiative which will improve the user experience and provide a more seamless access experience to patrons, while also providing greater control and analytics over network activity. Community conversations and consensus building are necessary to explore potential alternatives to IP-authentication and to build momentum toward testing and adopting alternatives among publisher, system vendors, and library partners. This session will include a landscape overview and a description of the exploratory work and project elements now in progress. This will be followed by an interactive audience discussion of the opportunity, necessary requirements, pitfalls to avoid, as well as potential next steps.